Early history of ancestors
Contents
Page
Surnames 8
Medieval Europe 9
William the Conqueror 1028 10
Roll of Battle Abbey 10
The Norman Invasion 1066 10
The Baron Wars 1221 16
The Magna Carta 1215 17
The Inquisition 1300 18
Bannockburn 1314 21
The Plague 1348 23
Renaissance 1400-1600 23
Reformation 27
Martin Luther 1517 27
Church of England 1536 27
The Dissolution of Monasteries 1535 29
The Pilgrimage of Grace 1536 31
Rising of the North 1536 36
James VI. of Scotland 1603 39
The Freeman Charters 1603-1625 39
Migration to America 41
Voyage to Freedom 1620 41
Colonial America 43
The Massachusetts Bay Company1628 44
Government of Massachusetts Bay 44
Religion and Massachusetts Bay 44
Declaration of Independence 45
Moving Toward Independence 1776 46
Revolutionary War 1775-1783 49
Minutemen 1645 - 1776 51
Battle of Fort Ticonderoga 1775 53
Church Restoration 55
Restoration Time Line 1805 55
The Kirtland Temple 1833-1836 58
Zion's Camp 1834 63
Kirtland Safety Society Bank 1837 66
Butterfields Mission 1838 69
Stopover for Saints Heading West 1847 70
Settlement and Statehood 72
The Great Depression 80
Thomas Butterfield 85
Benjamin Butterfield Sr. 86
Benjamin Butterfield Jr. 87
Thomas Butterfield 88
Benjamin Butterfield 89
Joseph Butterfield Sr. 93
Joseph Butterfield Jr. 94
Josiah Butterfield 95
Early Settlers of Dunstable 1705 97
Abel Butterfield 98
History of Farmington 1846 98
Zachariah Butterfield 100
Farmington Public Library 1799 100
Thomas Jefferson Butterfield 101
1839 103
Thomas Butterfield 111
George Jefferson Butterfield 113
Final thoughts 119
Famous Butterfield's 120
Veterans 120
Jacob Butterfield - Member of the Mormon Battalion. 122
Other Noteworthy Butterfield Names 122
Butterfield Records 129
Revolutionary War Massachusetts Soldiers And Sailors 129
Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868 137
Nauvoo Temple Endowment Name Index 1846 138
Butterfield's Living in Dunstable, Massachusetts 1742 138
12th Century Court Records 140
Yorkshire Subsidy Rolls (Poll Tax) for the year 1379 142
Halifax, Yorkshire, England Parish Records 1543 142
Slavery 1754 143
Important Places and Monuments 144
Butterfield House 144
Early Riverton & the Magnificent Dome Church 1886 145
Bingley Parish Registers 1577-1686 146
Bedern Hall 1300 148
Keighley, West Yorkshire, England 1304 148
Holy Trinity, Rolleston, Nottinghamshire 1502 149
Maps 154
Note: A reprint of "Descendants of Thomas Butterfield Volume
Surnames
[An understanding of surnames (last name) is important when searching ancestors prior to the 1500's. Below, I have included some background on the origins of our family name and a little background on surnames in general.]
Every day the task of the genealogical inquirer becomes more difficult. That which is but faintly remembered by one generation, is totally forgotten by another ; and tradition, which sometimes supplies the place of testimony, is thus entirely lost. Few persons are so insensible to the ties of kindred as not to feel a legitimate curiosity in the history and connections of the individuals of their own family a feeling which remoteness of time cannot impair, and which the proximity of relationship only serves to strengthen. If the greatest nations have been ambitious of deducing their history from the earliest times, surely individuals may be pardoned who seek to trace their origin in the earliest recorded annals of their country. "Without attaching undue value to the advantage of birth, the love of our race is laid so deep in the foundations of human nature that such adventitious circumstances will always influence our social position. It should teach us humility when we reflect how small a space we ourselves may occupy in the eye of posterity, and it may inspire us with the spirit of emulation to maintain the good name which we have inherited from those who have gone before us.
The common spelling of the name in New England is Butterfield, and the same prevails usually throughout the United States: though instances are found of Botefield, of the direct German extraction: and, occasionally, of Boterville, the French form. In England, the Butterfield family date their arrival from Normandy in the twelfth century. Robert de Buteville held two fees in Bedfordshire in 1165 and likewise in Norfold. John de Buteville was possessed of the lord of Cheddington, in Bucks, in 1316. The name Botevyle occurs in the Battle Abbey roll. The estate of Bouteville was near Carentum, in Normandy, a town at the mouth of the river Tante, where are yet to be seen old fortifications, a castle and a curious Norman church (The Norman People). A branch of the family settled at Church, Stretton, Shropshire. The English pronunciation indicates a corruption of the German word Botefeld (Bote, a messenger, and feld, field, or clearing where the trees have been felled). Similar instances occur in Butterley, Buttermere, Butterwick, Butterworth in England, and perhaps Buterville in Ireland: the affix in each case denoting locality-ley meadow, mere pond, wick bay, worth enclosure-where the messenger dwelt. Or, the derivation may be from botfeld, which, among the Anglo-Saxons, was that portion of the manor, the timber of which was reserved for the repairs of the manor house, buildings, etc., and the mending of the fences. Such privileges were styled Haybote (from hait, hedge, or the land enclosed by it, and bote, repair). The official charge with such repairs was styled the Hayward, whence the modern word: as also Heyward and Howard. Our word botcher, for a blundering repairer, is a survival of this same bote in common speech.
[The Butterfield name probably derives from the German Botefeld, the Alglo-Saxon bótefeld, or the field of some old Viking named Bothar. Several sources suggest that the origin of the Butterfield name came from a Viking named "Bothar".
Benjamin Butterfield fled England for America in 1638. But before we can fully appreciate the significance of that story, we first have to understand where the family came from, their experiences beginning in Medieval Europe and the conditions that developed influencing Benjamin Butterfield to leave his home for a wild, unknown wilderness at great risk.]
